Luminous sign, sight, or the like



March 10, 1925- 1,529,643

l1. FEHQI)EFQL,

LUMINOUS SIGN, SIGHT, on THE LIKE Filed July 17, 1919 InventorfiFenderl,

flztarneg Patented Mar. 10, 1925.

UNITED STATES HEKTOR FENDERL, OF ROME, ITALY.

LUMINOUS SIGN, SIGHT, OR THE LIKE.

Application filed July 17,

1919. Serial No. 311,629.

(GRANTED UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF THE ACT OF MARCH 3, 1921, 41 STAT. L,1313.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that. I, HEKTOR FENDERL, a subject of the King of Italy,residing at 14 Via Sardegna, Rome, in the Kingdom of Italy, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in or Relating to LuminousSigns, Sights, or the like, for which I have filed application inAustria, August 27, 1915, #71584, Italy, March 12, 1919; Germany,September 29, 1915, of which the following is a specification.

In order to make visual signs readable.

even in the dark, they have hitherto some times been coated withself-luminous substances, such for instance as metallic sulphides madeactive by means of radium, or the position thereof have been indicatedapproximately by means of mark provided with such substances, but alwaysin such a way that the sight signs of the marks themselves are luminousand the rays of light from the self-luminous substances meet the eyedirectly.

In the case of such known arrangements the disadvantages arise that-theeye is dazzled by the radiations of the luminous material meeting itdirectly, the field of vision, filled with the phosphorescent clouds,aureoles and scintillations thatarise, accordingly does not seem clearin parts, and the visual sign itself is either not perceived at all orelse is only perceived indistinctly and inexactly. These seriousdisadvantages are prejudicial to the veryobject in view asthe eyeisdisturbed in its observation, the field of vision is made indistinct andobscure and the outlines of the sight or visual sign become uncertain,whereby, particularly in the case of sighting and measuring apparatus,in which clearness, exactitude and prompt reception of the aiming andreading off ap paratus are conditions of their existence, theapplicability of such devices is either excluded orat least becomesmisleading. In the case of thin sight signs, as for example in the caseof the cross wires of telescopes or in the case of micrometer scales,the coating with self-luminous substances is moreover from the nature ofthe case difiicult to carry out, on account of the minute dimensions andof the exactitude required, whereby the scope for the employment ofself-luminous substances is materially restricted.

- The; present invention eliminates these foregoing stated disadvantagesby not arranging the self-luminous substances on the sight or visualsigns, or marks themselves and moreover by arranging matters in such awaythat the rays of light therefrom do not meet the eye directly, butare laterally displaced round the visual sign and masked from the eye bymeans of screens, whereby the rays of light from the self-luminous substances do not meet the eye directly but strike the visual signs andmake these visible to the eye by reflection. Thedisadvantages previouslycomplained of, no longer arise in the case of this arrangement, but theeye carries on its work unhampered by secondary phenomena, the field ofvision appears clear and the visual signs are clearly and accuratelyperceived. By this means visual signs of even the smallest imaginabledimension can be made accurately perceptible in the dark, whereby aconsiderable widening of the scope of application thereof is produced.In particular cases the arrangements are advantageously hit upon ofmaking the support of the visual sign out of transparent material, suchas glass for example, forming the visual signs, thereon out of planesurfaces making an angle with those of the periphery of the support andarran ing the self-luminous masses directly on these peripheral planesurfaces of the support but concealing them from the eye by means ofscreens. In the case of such an arrangement the rays of light from theself-luminous substances reach the surfaces of the visual sign throughthe transparent material of the support without having to pass throughlayers of air, and make them visible to the eye by reflection or else byrefraction. In this case the field of vision remains absolutely dark andthe visual signs appear standing out sharply therefrom. By means of sucharrangements visual signs can be made percep tible in the dark, evenwhen they are located in liquids. The arrangements according to thepresent invention enable the visual signs to be left unchanged anduntouched and to be utilized, which in connection with the manufactureand accuracy of instruments of precision is of great value, and thecircumstances that they can be lodged in a small space inside the frameof the support of the visual sign and in theinterior of the-instrumentsand apparatus, andthat they remain a mgrinvention.

unnoticed by daylight and do not in an respect hinder the handling andusin o the instruments and apparatus provide themwith, exhibit stillfurther characteristics and essential advantages of this invention. Thepresent invention is applicable in the case of sighting and measuringapparatus for telescopes and other optical and other land surveying orgeodetic, aiming, measuring and experimental instruments. for artilleryand small arms, as well as in all other cases in which visual signs haveto be made perceptible in the dark.

Five examples of such applications are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawing. In the drawings Figure 1 shows a front and a vertical sectionalview of a telescope lens provided with my improvement. Fig. 2 shows amodification of a telescope lens arrangement. Fig. 3 shows a front andvertical sectional view of a front gun sight provided with ig. 4 shows afront and vertical sectional view of a gun rear sight provided with mylens is provided with a ring 4 of the selfluminous substance and achannel-shaped border ring 5 encloses said substance and conceals thesame from the observer. With this construction the border frame willreflect the luminous substance or the rays from the luminous substanceon to the markings 2 and this will enable the markings to be seenwithout permitting the glaring effect of the luminous substance.

In .tht' 'c'orm shown in Fig. 2 a series of crossed wires 2 are arrangedbetween lenses 4 and luminous rings 3 are arranged at the peripheries ofsaid lenses. and are con cealed by 'a border ring 1 having inwardlyextending) flanges 5. The operat on of this lens will e similar to thatdescribed in connection with Fig. 1.

In Fig. 3 I have illustrated a front sight for fire arms in which thesight proper 1 -isformed of transparent ,material and is provided in itsrear with a semi-spherical "depression 2. In this case the side andbottom edges 3" of the sight proper is provided with a luminous strip 4enclosed'by a casing 5} which permits the rear portion of the sightproper to be seen. With this construcluminous substance on to sai tionthe inner surfaces of the sides and bottoin of the casing will reflectthe rays from the luminous substance through the transparent body 1 andthe surface of the depression 2 will cause the rays to be concentratedat a point coincident with the axis of said depression.

In the form shown in Fig. 4 a rear sight is disclosed imwhich 1designates the transparent portion of the sight which is rovided with anotch 2 having an inclme'd rear surface line 6. The transparent body hasparallel side edges and angularly arranged bottom edges 3. and aluminous strip 4 is arranged around the side and bottom edges of thetransparent body. A casing 5 partially encloses said transparent bodyand entirely encloses said luminous body, and as the rear portion of thecasin is cut away it will permit observation of t e transparent body. I

'In the embodiment-of the' invention illustrated in Fig.5 I have shown amicrometer scale 1 provided with the usual marking 2}. The side edges 3of the scale are provided. with luminous strips 4" the rays of lightfrom which are reflected on to the scalemarkings by means of the casing55? which conceals the luminous material.

Fig. 6 illustrates the application of the invention to a liquid level'in which 1 is a section of a glass tube, 2 the usual bubble,

3 the peripheral surface of the tube, 4' theluminous material arrangedat diametrically opposite sides of the tube. and 5' the casings whichconceal the luminous substances and reflect the light from the same intothe tube 1".

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my saidinvention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declarethat what I claim is 1'.- The combination with an indicating device, ofa luminous substance desi ed to illuminate said indicating device, anmeans for concealing said substance from the observer and for reflectingthe re. s from the indicating device.

2. A combination as defined in claim 1,

in which the luminous substance is arranged at the edge of saidindicating device.

3. A combination as defined in claim 1 in which the luminous substanceis arranged at the edge of the indicating device, and the casingencloses said luminous substance and the edge of said indicating device.

4. The combination with an indicatin device, of a luminous substancearranged adjacent the same for illuminating said de-' groove in asurface thereof defining a hairline and a radium-luminous substance tomake said'hair-line visible.

' 6. A body of glass, a relatively deegnand narrow groove in a surfacethereof de ing a hair-line and a radium-luminous substance to make saidhair-line visible.

7. A glass plate, having a relatively deep and narrow groove in asurface thereof defining a hair-line and a radium-luminous substancedisposed along the edge of the said glass plate.

8. A glass disk, a relatively deep and narrow groove in a surfacethereof and a radium luminous substance disposed alon substantially thewhole periphery thereo 9. The combination with an optical instrument, ofa transparent body, relatively deep and narrow grooves in a surfacethereof defining hair-lines and a radium lumigpus substance to make saidhair-lines .visi- 10. The combination with an optical instrument, of aglass plate, a relatively deep and narrow groove in a surface thereofdefining aline of reference and a radiumlfiminous substance to make saidline visi- 11. The combination with an optical-instrument, of a glasslate in an image plane,

thereof, a relatively eep and narrow groove in a surface thereof todefine a hair-line and a radium-luminous substance to make saidhair-line visible.

12. The combination with an optical instrument, of a lass plate in animage plane thereof, re atively deep and narrow grooves in a surfacethereof to define hairlines and a radium-luminous substance distributedalong the edge of the plate to make said hair-lines visible.

13. The combination with an optical instrument, of a glass disk in-animage plane thereof, relatively deep and narrow grooves in a surfacethereof to define hair-lines and a radium-luminous substance distributedalon the periphery of said disk to make said air-lines visible.

14. The combination with an optical instrument including a tubular body,of a glass plate in the tubular body, relatively eep and narrow roovesin the plate, a recess adjacent the e ge of the glass plate, andradium-luminous material in said recessa In testimony whereof I havehereunto signed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

HEKTOR FENDERL.

Witnesses:

0L Pr D1: LOOOLO, PUoUNnnm Jmxomm.

